Unlocking Romans Block 3 session 1

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us the time and space to study Romans together. Father, may we have the excitement in discovering how deep your word is and how your word is the living word which is still speaking to us today. Uh father we pray in the following time uh you can speak to us through the class and we can be equipped by you uh through your word so that we can teach people better about Jesus Christ. We commit the following time in your hand. May your holy spirit guide us from the beginning to the end. In the name of Jesus Christ we prayed. Amen. Uh so what we are going to do today in morning and afternoon is to go through the Romans. Uh but before we walk through uh the whole book of Romans, we will have a review of what we learned last time. Uh just some brief review of the key points and see if you get the main idea about how how to articulate them precisely. Uh you probably need to reinforce that before the exam. Uh but let's just recall the key points. Uh so 5 W and 1H this is what we went through last time. Uh so this provide us the overall context and flow uh flow and understanding of the book which is beneficial uh to the interpretation of uh every single verse in the whole book. So in the session of who um what did we go through? We went through the author, apostle Paul and any key points, teachings. So yeah, his identity we delve deeply especially in the identity as a missionary pastor because the traditional understanding of his image uh for quite a while among the scholars he's highly systematic uh he is more on the side of a pastor a teaching pastor which is true uh but he actually plays uh the greater role as a missionary. Uh so he's not simply stay at place and write a lot uh wrote a lot but he traveled and he planted church. He uh built the believers and he's also a missionary pastor who was not simply a person uh hit and run but he came back uh he nurtured the church and his goal of his mission is uh is to build the believers to them carry the image of Jesus Christ until the Christ likeness is formed in them. Uh some places it was described as maturity, spiritual maturity and that was also revealed in his description of the doctrine uh doctrine of salvation. The goal of salvation uh in God's plan is not merely receiving the entry entrance to the heaven uh not just going through the ceremony of citizenship and that's it but rather uh the image of the adopted son who share the same right as the true son who share the same life uh as the true son Jesus Christ who is the coair share with Christ. Uh so that describe his major identity as u missionary pastor and what else do we discuss about apostle Paul? So there is a very important point about his esquetological identity. uh we really need to understand the emotion and affection uh arising in the heart of the Jews when they hear history. Uh they have very deep uh affection towards the prophecy and they have great hope of the fulfillment of prophecy. So Jews is the nation uh who carry the strong sense of history from the beginning. Uh and this his historic view is linear which means there is beginning and there is end unlike some eastern culture uh built deeply rooted on a philosophy of circular historic view. Uh there's no beginning and no end. uh the eastern philosophies. So uh we probably grew up without the very strong feeling towards history. Uh so even if we were born in history and dying history but due to the cultural inference we may not grow such strong affection towards history. Why Jews when they hear about the history, the number, the historic events, the fulfillment of God's prophecy, uh that's where their interest is that that's how their uh passion arise. So Paul he well knew the prophecy about G uh what's GP right GP what does GP g mean gentile >> es esological pilgrimage so the nations and the peoples flood into the city of God to worship God and even their people and their churches their descendants will be brought to God. But before that, that was the word of God going to the nations. So the word of God proclaimed to the nations and the nations all gathered. Uh so that's the GP which is a very significant event of the esqueological uh moment. So Paul, he certainly understood this and he interpreted uh his gentile mission in this great scope of GP. How the word of God through the Jews through the remnants goes to the nations and the nations uh come to worship God. uh however uh Paul himself was not highly confined by the physical setting for example geographical settings even if the prophecy by text we can understand it's highly geographical right the the mountain uh the city the Jerusalem but why did Paul didn't value the geographical location as much as the traditional Jews uh because he spiritualized it uh following the teaching of Jesus Christ and the tradition of the early disciples. Uh this physical bondage is actually extended. It's not abolished but it's extended. And uh the gospel allowed us to see the essence. Uh for example, Paul's understanding about Jerusalem in his uh writings to the church in Galatia. We see that Jerusalem is the spiritual Jerusalem. Those who by God's promise in Jesus Christ, they are the descendants of the promise. Uh they are the descendants of Sarah. Even if they are not physical descendants of Abraham. So the Jews are not physical Jews. The circumcised are not merely the bodily circumcised but those who got circumcision in heart. And that's because Jesus actually started this teaching in his conversation with a Samaritan woman. Jesus talked about worship and Samaritan woman's focus was highly geographical. Right on this mountain or in the holy temple. Samaritans believe the place of worship should be on the mountain because that's the mountain where the proclamation of the blessing came out. Um but the Jews believe that was in Jerusalem in the holy temple. So because of this key idea of the exe es excattoological moment of worship deferred. So there is this unreconciled belief between the Jews and the Samaritan. And Jews believe that Samaritans they are the mixed they are the betrayer. uh they carry a lot of uh traditions same as the Jews and a lot of prophecy and hope and pro uh and and and understanding uh in the scripture similar as Jews but they got mixed with the pagan worship. So Samaritan woman brought this question about worship even if she was a woman who was despised by people but she had this deep concern. So you can see how religious uh the Mediterranean people are the Jews and their descendants and the Samaritans they really concerned about this. And this woman uh she was a theologian, right? She had this deep and profound thoughts about the fundamental difference between the Jews and Samaritans. And she was very surprised how a Jewish man could talk to her. And she brought this idea and her understanding was highly geographical in the in the on the mountain or in the temple. But Jesus answered her by saying uh the true worshipper is the one who worship God in spirit and truth. So he tell he told the u boundary between the Jews and the Samaritan and he brought this unity in Jesus Christ in worshiping God by the spirit and by by truth in spirit and in truth. Uh so so this is how Jesus interpreted the prophecy, how he interpreted the worship and also the esque esquetological moment. Sorry this word always difficult to pronounce. So Paul's understanding of uh his identity is related to Jerusalem greatly. He really valued Jerusalem and he valued where his people are. Uh but he was not fully confined by this. So carrying the money to Jerusalem, he view it as a highly symbolic event. The treasures from the nations gathered to the to the to the church. But in his understanding of the end of the world, he wanted to go to Spain. and he stated in his letter to Rome uh to to to believers in Rome also reveal that he was not highly confined by the geographical interpretation of the uh GP. So we delve a bit more into his uh esquetological uh herald this identity. Uh and what else do we talk about do discuss about Paul? We discussed about his ethnicity by his ethnical identity and that was related to the topic we talked just now. Uh so he didn't fully throw away his identity as a Jew. He even didn't throw away fully the Judaist traditions because he himself also practiced the ceremony of uh cleans and he himself also made vow and he had his hair cut off at the uh church in S Korea where probably Phoebe was serving and witnessed the event. Uh so so he himself was not uh abandoning his root his ethnic eth ethnical roots uh but in his understanding of ethnicity he went beyond that he sees the identity in Jesus Christ. So he uh brought up brought out this idea which was not his invention but he highly emphasized that uh in many of his epistles that was the house of God. The house of God, the family of God. this concept of family and the term brothers uh the the brothers from the same mother's womb even beyond the ethnicities the Jews and the Gentiles they can call each other brothers from the same womb uh because they all h have the new identity in Jesus Christ. Um so we we talk quite a lot about the author and the target audience. So we went through a bit more in the where section about the challenge uh believers face in Rome inwardly and outwardly. Right? and and that somehow identifies the uh spiritual situation of the target audience but also through Paul's writing directly we can witness the faith of Rome church and this uh mixture of race races existing in Roman church which was also great so that was uh how the church is um but there is this conflicts misunderstandings and and divisions among the believers mainly due to the strong and the weak which was uh dealt also in Romans in the later parts of Christian ethics and some key figures. Could you recall some key figures we mentioned last time? Key figures. Sorry >> guys. Yeah, Gio. Who's Gaus? >> No, Phoebe was the one who sent the letter. G was the host. He was located in Corinth. So, it was probably in his house. Paul stay for two months during the winter and addressed this letter. So G was provided the space uh the hospitality and also probably financial support in order for the letter to be well written and and probably he even sponsor the cost of the uh scribe so that this letter can be well addressed and probably he also contributed in composing this letter by providing some information. So uh so in the name list in the name list at the end of Romans we we can see his name was there and there are a lot of co-workers and as a whole team they greeted the church in Rome. Uh so the writing uh probably happened in the way Paul was walking in the room and uh churches trying to record everything and there was conversation going on in the house with other believers and that was probably not composed once off. It was done in a period of time uh may even last for two months. Uh so there was conversation going on. there was teaching and there was fellowship and there was the co-editing of what they are going to write. Uh so so if you had that picture in mind uh you can probably understand the book of Romans better. How could it be so complete in some some sense but it has temperature? Uh so if you consider it as a transcribe of a uh a fellowship of a sermon and and instead of approaching it as a very cold dissertation theological paper, then you can probably sense the heart of Paul and somehow the heart of the Lord in this letter. And who else? >> Phoebe. Yeah, Phoebe uh she is the benefactor. So she was not merely the carrier of the letter. She was a person received the testimony from Paul who was the benefactor for many. So she was a deacon diaonus. She was a deacon who served who show hospitality who provided for many and also because of that identity she could probably have a vast network. Imagine she was a businesswoman. She was a CEO of a company. Highly successful CEO and very generous and and she will build vast network. And those who could do business well, if you communicate with them deeply, you will see the very kind and broad heart inside of them. Those who are very shrill and very crafty and who money every for epic coins they couldn't do business but those who have big business actually they have very generous heart their heart is broad their mind is broad so Phoebe was probably that kind of uh female CEO a woman uh a a successful business woman and because of the network she could travel and brought the letter over and she could communicate with the church uh very well and back in Nowadays, the benefactor who carried the letter will not merely read the letter or pass the letter or just not not just a male person, not not a male man or male woman. Uh she will probably preach and interpret it and tell the church tell the church what was going on in that two months when this letter was composed. Uh so you may notice by text some letters may carry the secret code. Uh for example recently we came across first Peter the word Babylon. He described Rome as Babylon and he talked about uh Jesus as living stone which encoded the prophecy in Daniel chapter 2. this living rock, living stone which destroyed the empires and also he talk about Noah the the the ones who are rebellious during the days of Noah uh they were even submissive to the authority of Jesus Christ. So he was telling the believers that endure, be patient, be gentle and be submissive but know that Christ is the living stone. He will destroy all the empires. That's the history of God. And these kind of things uh couldn't be be written down directly in the text because they may got severely persecuted by the government. Uh but the carrier the benefactor will probably interpreted part of the letter to the church what the writer really meant to tell. Uh so in order to understand Bible well we really need to have this picture in our mind. You know it's interesting that recently I learned how people communicate and listen well right I think you also learn that in the supervised ministry uh as a minister as a worker of uh of God we need to learn how to listen and and listening is not merely getting the text right >> right when you try to listen and communicate with a person You may prefer a face-toface communication to know that person better. It's definitely better than Zoom. It's definitely better than a phone call and it's far more better than text message. And what is enriched? So let's look at it layer by layer. Uh compared with a text message, what's more in a phone call? You can hear the tone right in the phone. >> Yeah. And you cannot edit, delete, edit in the phone. So the instant reaction, conversation, emotion carry in the tone. So that's what the phone call carried. And what's more in the zone, >> facial expression, >> right? You can see the facial expression. Uh so there is a uh survey and there is a research saying that how people get message only very small percent uh less than 7% people get message by text by the text and I can't remember the exact portion but uh 30 to 40% slightly less than 40% % by the tone how people speak the emotion carry in the voice. So but 55% people actually get the message in their daily communication by by facial expression by their bodily and facial expression. That's how people communicate with with each other. So your face and your body actually speaks a lot. So compared to Zoom, what is different in face and face meeting? Your body language, right? And and and and and also spiritually, right? When people stay together, there is this work spiritually and people will respond and react to that and you can sense if the person relax and feel safe or not. Right? This is something you can't fully sense in the zone settings. So more uh so compared to text message, phone call, zone call and and body language. So why I talked about this? Because today when we read Bible, the first thing we we we get in contact is the text and which is is a perfect form to preserve the meaning. The text is very precise and accurate. And for a long time, the western church really focused on this textbased articulation. How to precisely articulate the meaning, right? Homosia, how that can be described uh how that can be used to describe uh the second person in trinity uh the son of god, the the the holy son. But why homushia is not suitable in the third person, right? So, so very very into the detail in order to get the doctrine right in order to restore the meaning in the text and try to be biblical and orthodoxical. So that's the focus of the western church. And why eastern church, eastern tradition, what do they focus myth mythical side of faith and mysticism. So they really believe the big part of the Christian belief is not preserved only by text but by the liturgy which conducted in the church setting and in the environment in the settings you see you sense and there is the part you can't articulate or even explained or understood by text. So they were into this mysticism, mystic, mystical part of faith. So the evangelical theological study is highly based on the western tradition. We have to admit that. So we really value the text and we want to be precise in our articulation. So that's why we want to study theology when we want to get the terms right. We want to do the ex Jesus. to analyze the text get the meaning right and we also believe that the Jews and the Greeks and how Bible was written the writers really concerned about each word they want use the word rec recklessly how Paul used the word redemption ransom and atonement he never mess up so so and salvation even if people who study Bible at the first place they felt what's the difference between these words they they seem similar to me yes they all carry the similar meaning which talked about the work of Christ but actually each word carry totally different meaning they can't be exchanged or change location as we study uh the meaning and also body and flesh very different so people who do not understand that they may say isn't that just just the body body, physical body, flesh. No, different physical body, body, flesh. Uh they were used in a totally different way. So, so that's why we value the text. We want to go into the text. We want to exercise our exegetical ability to know the Bible. So, that's the very important part of understanding Bible. But if we understand how our brain listens and get message and how human beings communicate, we shouldn't fully throw away the rest of the part, the tones, the uh facial expression and the body language. But how can we know that? So we need to try to restore what's going on in the first place. That's why the historic background is important to understand Bible uh the historic setting the original writers understanding culture uh and and how it was composed right how. So this how is important. So if we understand Paul sit down by himself, scratch his head, write down to write down Romans, then the way we interpret Romans will be very different. But now we understand, hey, it's not just himself. It was he and churches and it was he and Gus and Phoebe and and sometimes Timothy visited. Sometimes Aquilla and Priscilla visited and sometimes Paul call somebody or who sering Rome church to come and ask them hey is the church there similar like Corinth or what's the issues or why he was composing this letter probably someone sent some news from the church so there was this dynamic conversations going on and and also fellowship. So you started to feel oh Romans was actually really noisy, really loud and really warm and the way you understand Romans will be very different. So when you do Bible reading, you may sometimes use the audio Bible. There are different versions of Bible reading. There are more less emotional ones, but there are more emotional ones. There are dramatized Bible uh King James version ESV they all have dramatized version and there is this audio drama ver drama version in different language so so and and sometimes you you feel oh wow that that's that's wonderful and but sometimes you disagree the way they they read because you actually painted a very different picture of how the story was taking place by digging the word of God more deeply, you may paint different picture in your mind. So when we are learning Bible and when we are teaching Bible, it's quite important to to try to restore the original settings as much as possible. So people can understand the word of God more deeply in that settings even if we didn't physically be the first witness of those settings. So those study uh the theological study of of the the settings, the background, the context uh really help us to restore the first setting so that we can know the word of God more precisely. Yeah. We just extend it a little bit more. Uh okay. In the when uh when section what did we learn? So we learned two things right one is the timeline of Paul's mission. Uh so and and that was also part of his his personal journey of faith. Uh so how he went to his people first and how he uh went to the Gentiles and was it because he didn't realize God's calling or was he uh was that um telling Jews about Jesus was always in his agenda and in his prayer and he planned to uh go to Rome. He planned to go to Jerusalem first. uh and then to Rome and to Spain. There was this timeline. The time of writing was around uh uh uh 57 AD. 57 AD and there was a period of time he spent a winter in Corif. So this two month was important because uh it was a relatively peaceful two month. Uh so unlike most of Paul's missionary journey, he traveled a lot. He couldn't really stop. He couldn't even stay at the place long enough according to his plan. Uh but now he was provided with a nice environment. Uh and physically he was he had a well-being so he could have a peaceful time of fellowship of writing. Uh where what do we go through? Key locations. So how many maps do we look at? So key locations, Rome is definitely a important location and Jerusalem. >> Jerusalem. >> And we also look at >> Corinth. >> Yeah. The place of writing. And what else? We look at Spain. Tashes. Uh and map. Uh we had two maps, right? Let's look at it went through last time we had two maps. Yeah, that was the strategic map, the overall plan. Uh and also we look look a little bit more detail of that map. Basically one map we just try to elaborate it a bit more. Okay. Yeah. His plan tree. Uh purpose of writing intention behind the writing. esque esqueological uh sh message trying to tell the cosmic side of uh God's saving plan. We we look at the balance between the cos cos cosmic uh interpretation of Romans and also the traditional interpretation. We look at a stage of the three stages of the development of the not really development well so the development of uh interpretation uh but we also made a small critique right so if we over overly emphasize the cosmic part uh you probably lose the uh importance of lose the balance of the importance of the personal salvation uh and and we we also look into this psychology ology of mission. So when a person is empowered to do mission was that because a person's good understanding of history actually the primary reason is not that was primarily because of the the passion grow inside because of the love of Jesus Christ. So because of the grace we are empowered to tell people about the love of God that that was how the early church spread. so fast. The passion was not the esquetological passion even if they are a highly esqueological community. The passion was primarily the passion of salvation. So the personal salvation, the love of Jesus Christ and the hope allowed them to share the gospel. So think about the Ethiopian unic in Philip's message. He never talked about these esquetological aspects. He never talked about the the history but he basically talked about the son of God Jesus Christ this suffering servant who carried the curse and that became the message of liberation for this hopeless Ethiopian unic and he gained a hope he received the healing he see his life was not dead but rather there is this endless hope in Jesus Christ and carrying that hope he received the baptism and he even probably brought the gospel to the land of Africa and Ethiopia become the earliest Christian country. So there was nothing to do with the cosmic part of salvation. Paul in many of his letters he indeed include the cosmic parts of um of salvation uh in Romans chapter 8 uh and Romans chapter 9 to 11 in Ephesians dominantly really really big uh amount of writing was about this cosmic part uh but we shouldn't lose the balance uh so the problem of liberal theology uh was Here they they overly emphasize the cosmic part uh because the problem in the church which was confined by individualistic salvation and let them push to the other extreme. So this is how the doctrinal history flows. In order to correct the wrong doctrine you push a bit too hard and then people goes to the other extreme. For example, we talk about in our study last term, the introduction of uh Christian theology. We talk about these ex existential aspects here so cucar. So uh recognizing the problem of this highly institutional worship, highly communal and institutional that individual is ignored and missing in this worship and soren raises exist existential aspect to look at salvation. So, so, so the personal personal salvation, right? So, that that's that's on the foundation of the reformation. It's personal salvation is highly valued. And this personal deep thoughts about death, about meaning, about life is especially about meaning whether uh religious existentialism or uh such um uh atheist existentialism. uh both consider the meaning greatly. Uh so the loneliness the meaning and about death right. Uh so so I need to face uh so so for summ for cy guys you need to face god but for such such you need to face death alone and meaningless of life and try to find meaning try to create meaning and Christian extensionalist uh try to emphasize you need to find your personal salvation calling and meaning in your personal relationship with God which cannot be replaced by the common worship a as a community. So so they certainly raised this very precious and important side of the personal relationship with God which was mentioned in the Bible but because of this emphasis uh somehow the revolution pushed too hard and destroy the institutional function of church. So that creates the western church's image that today many people says I believe in Jesus in my heart. I worship him in my house. Why not? Why do I need to go to church? Why do I need this shell which confine me and take away my uh personal or existential concern? I I want to face this existential question. I don't want to be numb by the common worship. U but this is wrong. Right. So, so, so, so pushing too hard but and and also we look at Kbach, he really emphasized the word of God, Jesus Christ, right? So, this is Christ Christentric emphasis of the whole understanding whole interpretation of systematic theology actually push a bit too much on that side. uh so so we we always need to carry the spirit of reformation and make adjustment and see the balance and drag it back. So why liberal push so hard of the cosmic understanding and interpretation of Bible and salvation? because of the ignorance or or or the neglect. Uh because the church overlooked the mission for too long and the church was confined by the individualistic salvation for too long. And the church even uh ignored the historic teaching in the Bible. And the church also uh make salvation simplified. People tick box, take the ticket and believe that heaven is up there. So they missed the part thy kingdom come and God's will for this earth. That was the whole reason the liberal theologians rediscover those themes in the Bible and highly emphasized the cosmic interpretation of the scripture. But somehow it went a bit too far. So today it went a bit too far to the point they talk about mission. The earliest global uh mission u mythologist they all see that part of the cosmic side of doctrines. Um but but eventually the church they belong to the denominations they belong to do they actually do mission. They did a lot of charities and a lot of church actually declined and got blended by other religions and secularism. So people who lost this personal salvation, personal relationship with God, this gratitude towards the saving grace uh fundamentally had no strength to share the gospel. But people who even couldn't understand the cosmic side of salvation well but carry the gratitude of personal salvation this saving grace they have this joy of salvation they can evangelize well that was how the early church expanded so fast but Paul tried to teach the sound doctrine in a complete way so he talked about the personal salvation and he talked about God's cosmic plan and he come back to this responsibility in your personal life of Christian ethics this very solid relationship within the church this thing which aches you not the dream and vision and global cosmic big picture but how this is related to my life because this cosmic vision was fulfilled bodily in Jesus Christ in this person of Jesus Christ. So the bodily uh form of Jesus Christ the flesh uh he has body he has flesh is so important. This is the central doctrine of the early church. No matter what you teach you find the balance in the person of Jesus Christ. Uh so so come back to uh the point of why uh there is there is this cos uh cosmic uh purpose esquetological education uh but primarily and firstly Paul tried to teach the doctrine of salvation gospel he tried to teach the gospel well uh and also there is this practical and pastoral concern right um pastoral concern is within the church uh there is confusion of the doctrine and there is the uh division among the believers right so and their attitudes toward the towards the Jews the the what was God's will towards the Jews so chapter 9 to 11 uh this interpretation that Jews who's never fell beyond recovery is quite important uh in a church relationship. Uh because the Gentiles will be humbled and value the identities the uh the the the physical national Jews greatly and have this carry this gratitude towards the root. uh and the Jews will not throw away their traditions and preciousness in the history God has been guiding them so far and they will not lose the hope for their nation and their people. uh and there is this missional practical side missional concern. Uh so Paul considered Rome as the launch path of further mission to the end of the earth. Uh financially and spiritually he wanted to go to Rome and be well supported by the church in Rome. uh so that uh probably they can support him financially and they can start the prayer for him for his trip planned trip to Spain. Uh so there are multiple layers of purpose affection and features. We look at the scribes and we look at the settings. We try to restore the original fellowship while this letter was being written. uh the affection inside of Paul this tension because he's going to Jerusalem he may face the potential death and there are great risk that he pro could probably lose his life uh so leaving uh this letter was like living his last will uh testament and we also went through different structure right architects architecture of Romans and we uh especially talked about the function of Romans chapter 5 and also Romans chapter 9 to 111 and also we look uh a bit more of the function of Romans chapter 16 is not merely the ending of the letter or just a personal greeting but this part actually carry quite a lot you can decode it and dig quite a lot of treasures from the last chapter and we also went through some uh uh interesting history of this book. Uh this book used to be amputated a amputated by Martian cutting off the last two chapters because it contradicted with his teaching uh and how this was found out and how this precious book was preserved throughout the trials uh and also some key concepts we went through gospel salvation. We will go through that again after walk through the whole book chapter by chapter. Uh so we want to make the division of chapters slightly lighter and look at the whole flow of the text. Uh some people describe the division of chapters in the Bible as something done at the back of donkey. So when you ride on a donkey on a bumpy road, Oh, and divide. Uh but but if you study Bible more, you you will you will notice this is actually quite well divided. So except some places may be done in a better way. Actually most of the books the subtitles added later and the division made was quite well done uh with the respect of the original flow. Uh so let's complete the slides together. Uh we will do up to chapter 4. Let me look at the time. We'll do up to chapter four um by lunch. Uh let's look at the greeting and then we will take a small break. Uh so so the greeting let's look at Romans. I want to know which version did you use? You use and new King James version and IV and ESV. Can you name me at least five different versions of English translation which are commonly used? New King James version ESV and IV definitely were popular. RSV >> RSV. Yes. Revised standard version. >> ASV American standard version very close to ESV. Uh and then ASB was also New American Standard Bible uh with another translation uh more contemporary English but try to follow the structure and vocabulary of the original text. Um, and what else? Among the Pacific people, which version do they used often? >> King James. >> King James version. Yes. Uh, the conservative church use King James version or people with better understanding of English, they use New King James Version a lot. And also part of the reason was because Gideon Society handed out a lot of New King James Version. Uh did you notice that NLT was used a lot? >> NLT, >> New Living Translation, New Living Translation was used a lot in preaching. Uh I think it was initiated by a lot of American preachers who who view NLT not as a precise by text translation but a very good version for new believers. uh because the vocabularies are closer to daily language and contemporary English uh and and it somehow carry the the the the emotion inside. Um personally I don't like it because I felt it it changed the original translation too much. Uh but your people the people you are serving uh are using this version a lot. So it's worthwhile to at least get get to read it once in your life. And uh among Pentecost, charismatic Pentecost, NLT and the message Bible was used a lot because they really value these uh these living emotion carried inside. Even if I may feel some places would were were not read or written or translated with a writing motion. But but it it was also because the charismatic tradition uh view the text the exoggetical approach uh that evangelical use not as important as us. uh their understanding, their theology of the Bible, bibliology is different from evangelicals. Uh they believe the living word of God is still being spoken today by prophecy by alive prophecy. So they would take the alive prophets prophecy as equal as the authority of the Bible. They believe God is still speaking today through prophecy. But of course they still consider the consistency of the scripture and the living so-called living prophecy. It doesn't mean that they just believe everything the prophets said. They also test and try to discern. But their understanding of the authority of Bible, their interpretation of the word of God is very different. When you talk to evangelical the word of God, our first reaction is >> Bible, Bible and then the sermon based on the Bible. But their understanding is Bible and prophecy. Bible and vision. Bible and living revelation. But when we talk about revelation, our understanding is Bible. Okay. Bible. But their understanding is Bible plus the alive prophecy and and and spiritual gifted people's receiving from God. Uh so so so and that somehow in explain the reason they like NLT and the message uh greatly and in in Pacific a lot of people are highly influenced by the charismatic preachers online and offline and their understanding of pre uh of of millennium is highly premillennis and also um that's esquetological esqueological view and also um the understanding of the word of God. So so in order to serve your people well you somehow you need to know what the version they are using and and they are reading uh their understanding. Uh yeah, so we use an IV a lot not because it's the most precise version uh but because it's vocabulary and how we can do Bible study with this version better and also because the logic and expression in English when you read ESV ESV try to restore original order of the text and sometimes you feel oh I don't understand. I understand every word but I don't understand the sentence because the order of word changed. They try to make the gra grammat gram grammar correct while respecting the original expression in Greek and Hebrew and that really caused the difficulties in understanding. Uh so if you your English is better is your mother tongue then then ESV RSV ASV or only SB a great version. Uh but if not then then I think uh IV is not a bad choice. Uh I dislike the part the latest version change brothers to brother and sisters because when you say brotherly love it's brotherly love and the word used is brothers you can't say sisterly love it's so weird right but you know what the young people today when they read brotherly love they have different picture in their mind they really understand it in the LGBT sides So, so, so when we know our uh target audience better, we we really need to interpret the Bible. We use certain version, but we always need to explain to them. Well, uh anyway, let's come back to the uh to the greeting part. Romans chapter 1 from verse one to verse 15. Romans chapter 1 verse 1 to 15. Uh so verse 16 to 17 some people consider it's also part of the greeting u and some people consider it's just the introduction of the key theme Paul was going to talk about. So it depends on how they interpret the purpose of writing. Uh so if you think the major purpose is to preach the gospel to the believers in Rome, you may consider uh verse 16 to 17 as part of the greeting or make it part of his greeting by stating his purpose of writing. But if you consider other purpose for example missional practical purpose to prepare the church in Rome to understand this cosmic salvation and the importance of going to Spain and try to support him in prayer and in finance then probably you will not take verse 16 and 17 as a thematical verse verses and you you may think oh this is not part of his greeting. This is just a a verse connected to uh the the rest of the part up to probably chapter eight. Uh so personally I would like to group it into the introduction on the greeting. Uh so what are the key points included here? Say if you want to teach a Bible study or several Bible studies to your students uh about Romans chapter one verse one to say let's say up to 15 first what are you going to include in your teaching? >> Yeah. So so let's talk about up to verse 15 first. >> Yeah. post self introduction. Uh so what's going to be included in this part? >> Yeah. So the two sides servant and apostle uh and do you want to elaborate it? Yeah. Uh so one key passage we may include in understanding of this part is uh acts chapter nine right about his experience of being caught. We we we try to avoid conversion because we indeed feel it's not a very suitable term. Um so Paul received the call from Jesus Christ. Uh he received the grace and he received the the commission the calling. Uh so uh and and we know these two things are connected his new life in Jesus Christ and his calling in Jesus Christ. And we may also try to interpret uh it Greek meaning right his word dulus and try to understand oh this servant is different from the modern servant who work and do the labor and earn the money. So we understand it as belonging because in most of the contexts in most of the countries people don't have slave um they they they don't have slavery even if they may despise some people who work in the lower class they have no understanding of this totally loss of autonomy. So dulus uh the meaning of slave uh and we may want to expand it a little bit more about uh how he surrender himself. Right? This is not just about not not just about working hard uh or or doing uh lowly labor. Um but firstly about uh sub to and we'll say about belonging belonging and submission to Jesus Christ. I belong to Jesus Christ. uh my life fully surrender um to Jesus Christ. Uh so you may want to let your um Bible students know, think and explore a little bit more about how strongly people search and desire for freedom and autonomy. This independency, breaking free, right? This is what people's soul is yearning for. Uh but Paul's confessions Jesus Christ has set me free and I use the freedom to to belong to him to serve uh and I surrender all my will my plan to Jesus Christ. I think it's a very powerful uh start when we teach Romans. The missionary in Indian testified that when they teach this part about Paul's calling about his identity as a servant yet at the same time when he lost his autonomy he has the the very glorious identity as apostle speaks to a lot of Indian Christians uh because a lot of Indian Christians they are second generation Christians. So second generation Christians or Christian from a Christian background country, you may easily find that they say I'm serving God, but they actually doing their own thing. The whole country is is Christian and the government is Christian. So everything you do is in a Christian context. Everything you do, you give praise to God. Every car you drive have the Bible words printed everywhere whether it's correctly printed or not. Uh so unless God's your labor will be in vain and then I saw your labor will be in vain. So so oops uh yeah so so if people came out from that context it's really hard for them to understand they need to have something new they need to have new commitment. They need to make new devotion because they felt everything in this country and everybody in this country has already devoted himself or herself to God already. Right? So so so this this message of servant of surrendering surrendering my personal will and plan to Jesus Christ's calling is very important and very powerful. Um, autonomy, autonomy and freedom and how Jesus Christ uh obeyed obey um and serves Yeah. So we may include this part. Uh and and at the same time this surrender uh this submission um didn't lead to the loss of oneself but rather Paul found his very glorious uh glorious and high calling from God. So we consider the pastoral uh function of trying to make it bigger. Uh and what else are you going to talk about? This is the self introduction which is just the beginning. So connected to his self introduction, his identity is the gospel. >> Yeah, the gospel. The gospel that is not >> Yeah. It's not a invention. It's not a new invention. >> It's from the Old Testament. >> So in scripture, it was promised by God. >> Yeah. So the understanding of the gospel uh I will probably I will include the later verse as well. So how this one verse two uh related to verse one how it's related the gospel right so Paul says I receive this identity because of the gospel. So he started to talk about the gospel. Um so it was the promise uh of God. Um the gospel he promised before beforehand through his prophets in the holy scripture. So it has this history um historic root um and and towards the Jews this speaks really strong as a very strong message because they value the prophets but for the Gentiles it's also a strong message um because uh it it's it's the promise it's about this history guided by God. Um God has been guiding the history and allow his people to receive the gospel and uh the the the concept of the gospel actually extended to the understanding of who Jesus Christ is the central figure of the gospel. So I will not just limit it to verse two um Jesus Christ and verse three the central figure of the gospel. So the christologology christologology is his christologology is the true god or true man and true god. Verse three regarding his son who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David. In verse four, and who through the spirit of holiness was appointed the son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Actually, verse four contains quite a lot of information about resurrection, about the Holy Spirit. If you got the topic of the Holy Spirit, you also need to revisit this sentence, but you didn't get this topic. spirit of holiness. So in the true man talk about the uh an to 11. the Jewish uh ethnicity uh and true God which is uh related holy spirit and also uh resurrection which is related to Romans chapter 5 chapter 8 and verse five uh and six back to the calling calling God to Paul and the church. Um verse five to verse six. Through him we receive grace and apostilhip to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. So Romans actually started with Gentiles and ended with Jews. So, so that's how the ending part got ampu amputated. Um I will not separate Gentiles and also obedience which is related. Even the part of greeting plays a pastoral function um and that pastoral function includes the teaching of the doctrine and Paul's um biographical information right constantly we see Paul includes his biographical his personal um testimony and explanation or description or introduction as as as a pastoral teaching uh about the message of the gospel and Paul also wished the church to know the calling uh so it's not just the call for me and for the co-workers but the whole church actually receive the call to obey God and be surrendered um to him. Verse seven, to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people. Grace and peace to you from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a typical Pauling greeting uh Pauline style greeting or we say blessing. So grace and peace in Jesus Christ. The idea of grace is dominant in Paul's teaching and because it's it's dominant in his heart. Uh so that's a let me duplicate this side or continue to okay then um this eight what's included here. So what are what what are the points? Normally we don't talk this much about introduction because you want to quickly go to the part of sin and start to preach the gospel. Uh but what's included here? >> Sorry. for commanding them. Yes. And Paul also told them that I've been praying for you a lot, right? And his plan to visit R. So his thanksgiving uh his joy for the church gratitude thanksgiving and also his prayer and um and his plan. So you you can see verse 8 to 10 as Paul's description of his prayer right his thanksgiving and also the action of prayer he pray constantly and also in his prayer he pray that he could have the paved path to go to Rome So verse um Paul's self description of his prayer for uh for the church in Rome verse 8 to 10. So there is thanksgiving there constant prayer for the saints he hadn't met and there is the uh pentation prayer to prayer for the face to face visit. And this part uh will be good to connect together with Romans chapter 15 and 16 to see uh his heart, his purpose and whole mission, trip plan. whole plan of mission tree. And what else? talk about your church. >> Yeah. So basically everybody >> Yeah. >> So we we need to pay attention to the format of epistle of letter. So if it's part of the greeting uh you know in the greeting you have to state who you are the writer of the letter emotion of the letter and you need to say hello in a fancy way greeting really greeting uh and try to identify the connection with the receiver of the letter which has been studied so so much uh and and then in the grief ing you also need to include purpose of writing. So, so verse 11 and I believe up to verse uh 17 are the purpose of writing. Actually from part of verse 10, Paul already started to talk about his purpose. But uh in a clear statement verse um 11 to verse 17 are about the purpose of writing. And in this part we we see quite a lot of message uh messages. So uh of course his affection for the believers for the church in Rome even if he never met them and he says I long to see you so that I may impart you some spiritual gifts to make you strong. Uh so um we say impart spiritual gift. So what is this? What is the spiritual gift? What is the spiritual gift? Paul lay the hands on them so they can see vision and prophesy. People may have the picture imparting spiritual gift in this way because indeed that's what happened in the old testament right when the master wants to impart some spiritual gift to the follower uh and also in the new testament the church somehow resemble this image by laying hands and Paul also talked to Timothy that the spiritual gift given to you when when the elders lay their hands on you. Uh so laying hand is physical touch in prayer in blessing in in dispatching uh is important. Um but what what did Paul say here about spiritual gift? This is actually more than supernatural spiritual gift. So spiritual gift uh means grace. So gifts and grace. Uh so this is the actual meaning and Paul wants to meet the believers and when we look at the book of acts when he actually met the church what did he do then we need to know that right? So what did he do? Did he lay the hand and pray and let the fire come down? Probably he did that. I believe it may be part of the thing happening. But according to the book of Acts, what do you do? He shared the word of God. He shared the grace. Right? So he testified about the work of God. And this is what they did in the Jerusalem council. And this is what Barnabas did every time when he went somewhere and came back. And this is what Paul did after the missionary trip. one round and he came back to Antioch. He reported the work of God. So this is what he did. This is imparting the spiritual gifts. So if we are highly influenced by the image painted by charismatic movement, we may limited the spiritual gift to the supernatural gifts uh and the imagery to laying hand. But actually if we look at the Bible the biblical image of imparting grace is much broader and primarily it's about telling people about the word work of God sharing grace sharing the word word of God. So charisma charisma is the the the the grace gift uh spiritual gift grace sharing grace and related to this we also believe that when Timothy received the laying of hands uh it may not be the sense that some spiritual or superal natural event happen. Suddenly Timothy has the gift of preaching evangelism or he suddenly had the uh gift of praying in town or seeing visions. It could probably happen. Uh but when the church laying hand to dispatch a person, what need to be imparted is firstly the grace of God, the calling of God. verse 11 to make you strong that is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. So we see his humble image and mutual in the word mutual mutually encouraged by each other. So Paul did not stand at the position as mainly an educator. He believed there is the word of God and grace of God in the church so that when the saints meet together they will receive the mutual encouragement. Uh and verse 13 is about his uh desire to visit the church. Um verse 13 uh some key word is um prevented right but this one need to be related um with Romans chapter 15 about the prayer request Paul sent to the church uh verse 30 to 232. So, and also and there's another keyword um harvest a harvest. I think in last lecture in last block we also look at this what is the understanding of harvest and one key understanding is the donation collection financial support and but we shouldn't uh minimize the meaning of harvest just as oh getting money is harvest otherwise the city harvest church is really harvest because they earn a lot of money prosperity gospel but Paul really view this collection and donation from the saints in their time of extreme poverty as a devotion to Jesus Christ. He described the Macedonian church first gave themsself to the Lord and then he gave him gave themsel to to the brothers and sisters um by giving and taking out more than what they have. uh uh collections uh financial supports. Um so as a highest form of uh devotion to the Lord. Yeah. Because he described it as a harvest. among you just as I have had among the other Gentiles. Uh so it it's quite probably referring to the part of collection but uh this one also uh which uh includes the spiritual maturity. So fruit offering uh and later in Romans chapter 8 uh this idea of fruit related to related to the idea of fruit in Romans chapter 8 it's a uh common or a very um uh often used image in Paul's writing food August and then just now Bracilla contributed idea his attitude Paul's attitude as a dctor and that's also related to to Romans chapter 12 rights chapter 12 that no debts remain outstanding and then except the death of love. Is that Romans chapter 12 or 14? Let us look at 14. That no deaths remain outstanding except the deaths of love. Oh, it's in Corinthians. Sorry. 14. Someone find me like this. 14 verse 8. >> Sorry. >> 15 verse 8. >> 13. >> Oh, 13. Yeah. Yeah. 13. Oh, great. It's here. Let no debts remain outstanding except the continuing to love one another. Uh 13 verse 8. that of love. Um so to everybody that's verse so Romans chapter 1 verse 14 to 15 Yeah, when you when you teach, you may not include that many, but it's certainly a very rich passage. I hope you can go through all the points and get nurtured by the word of God. Uh, and verse 16 to 17. So it's also part of the purpose of writing because Paul talked about he owned the debts of love and how he repay that debts is by sharing the gospel and he's not ashamed of the gospel. So something he felt really proud about and this is his way of giving love. Uh so uh I'm not ashamed of the gospel uh because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone. And then the the verse in Habacook was quoted. So this is certainly where the background if you know the context of the original text of the righteous shall live by faith. It is about how the prophet stood firm in front of the invaders. The gentile armies Calius invaded and they were very proud and they were full of arrogance and violence. So, so this image was actually the image of the empire in front of the empire which could uh despise the the Christians or even persecute the Christians. uh we didn't feel ashamed and in front of the um big uh the the the grand uh architects of the the philosophies and schools of the world. We don't feel ashamed as a church uh because the gospel is is our glory. The gospel is our salvation. So this imagery about Rome u so I'm not ashamed of the how should I describe that so um well say post So it's related uh the the the prophecy of hab cook was related to the um image of uh Christians in the um Rome Roman Empire. The righteousness shall live by and there are some key words here. Uh so for example power of God. Uh okay. Firstly the uh gospel Evangelia. This image Evangelia the way Christian describe the good news is highly provocative because gospel means the good news from the battlefield. In the battle we won. Christ has won and we send the good news. So today we may feel our gospel is very religious term but in the early church is a highly provocative term to challenge the authority of Rome. uh the gospel uh good news from the uh victory in the battlefield few and also power of God. This is also highly provocative challenging the power of Rome uh and also uh bring salvation to everyone. Salvation to everyone and Paul especially emphasize first to the Jew then to the Gentile. So everyone uh and righteousness of God which we will dig more in a later passage but this is also one of the key theme of the message of the gospel the righteousness of God and also faith by faith from first to last. What's the meaning or some version translated from faith to faith? So, so that's directly translated from the original text. The meaning is quite ambiguous. But from the bigger context of your understanding of Romans, how do you understand verse 17? from faith to faith. from faith to faith or or by faith from first to last >> or from faith to faith >> sorry >> I don't know >> guess but but by your understanding of the overall context and meaning of Romans because this word itself by taxbased ex ask ex Jesus is very ambiguous that that's how it is by faith from first to last or fa from faith to faith so what what Paul try to tell here what's your understanding do you want to leave it as a research question that you check some commentary And >> uh everything. >> So it's in a in one individual salvation start from faith and this goes to the end not by faith first and end with work. Uhhuh. Right. >> Yeah. Okay. Any other opinion? I think um what was the first one was the option >> no not option I think you can check some commentary I I I did read some commentary interpreted as Kiyagi did in one person's personal salvation started by faith. The salvation started by faith and and it ends by faith. So the whole whole journey is by faith or to sort out the misunderstanding people had about how a person started the journey by faith but ended by works like justification by faith and sanctification by my efforts. So and also uh look at uh a another commentary understand this as how evangelism is taking place mission from first to last. So so the church passed down the faith that's that's also one interpretation. So it's not limited in individual salvation but how Paul tried to uh tell the faith uh and and gave birth to new life. So from first to last that's also another interpretation uh so you can check how Luther understand it and Kelvin and different commentary. Uh but this this phrase by its original text is very ambiguous. Uh so meaning is very ambiguous. Uh so in whichever interpretation Paul tried to emphasize the importance of faith. So it's purely by faith we are saved. Uh the righteous will live by faith. That's up to verse seven. and we will pray and take a short break and come back. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time we can uh review our study in the past block and we can also deepen our understanding of how we should understand your word. how we make make uh the enriched meaning uh of the text we receive and allow the Bible study uh to be alive and allow our teachings to really bring not just the sound the text but also the image the life uh to those who want to know you and father we thank you for uh the precious book of Romans even the greeting uh carry such a heavy weight even the greeting contains contain so many precious messages allow us to chew on those messages and really uh get closer to Bible and get closer to apostles life in the name of Jesus Christ we prayed. >> Amen.